The best teams are greater than the sum of their parts and nowhere is this more true than the RAF Leeming-based Operational Training Centre (OTC), presented with an Air Officer Commanding 11 Group Commendation for its outstanding work in preparing personnel for future operations.
The Award was presented in recognition of the exceptional work delivered by the team of ten permanent staff in training Expeditionary Air Wings for operational commitments. Often reinforced by Reservist personnel, the team helped mentor Sweden and Finland - NATO's newest members - in their own preparations for operations. OTC also trained and mentored RAF personnel for Exercise AGILE SHIELD, a large scale evaluation across 13 RAF Stations.
Wing Commander Si Reade, Officer Commanding OTC, received the award from Air Vice-Marshal Tom Burke CBE, on behalf of his team. He said: "It's awesome to receive this award because it's an awesome team. The hardest thing is that we can't stand still. As well as delivering training, we need to look at how that training needs to change in the future. With the rate of change in warfare at the moment, we have to retain relevance.”
